TOGETHER WITH:
Howdy, Fam!
Automakers are back at Congress asking for a permanent ban on Chinese connected vehicles, hardware, and software, before the current session wraps in January.
We'll dig into that below. But another story worth your full attention today is closer to home: a new workplace study shows dealership employees are broadly happy, except for one specific group sitting right in the danger zone.
Also in today's email:
The one-to-three-year employee crowd isn't buying the "everyone's happy" narrative
An Alabama dealership made youth sports cost less than a tank of gas
Wholesale depreciation just hit its steepest weekly drop since December
Keep Pushing Back,
—Chris with Paul, Kyle & Kristi
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Automakers Are Asking Congress to Slam the Door on Chinese Vehicles for Good
Major automakers are turning up the pressure on Washington.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing the vast majority of companies selling vehicles in the U.S., sent Congress a letter this week urging a permanent ban on the domestic sale, import, and manufacturing of Chinese connected vehicles, hardware, and software, and they want it done before the current session ends January 3.
Right now, Chinese automakers are dumping subsidized vehicles with connected software and hardware around the world. This hasn't happened inside the U.S. yet, but given the scale and urgency of this threat, we urge you to enact a Chinese vehicle, software and hardware ban before adjourning this year and make this policy the law of the land.
The push lands alongside separate, bipartisan legislation already moving through the Senate Commerce Committee that could affect Mercedes-Benz, given Chinese investors hold nearly 20% of the German automaker, a wrinkle the Alliance says it wants to work through carefully rather than let sweep up companies unintentionally.
With midterms approaching in November, the group is racing the clock on Congress's attention span as much as the policy itself.
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Dealership Workers Are Happy. The One-to-Three-Year Crowd Isn't Buying It Yet.
Eighty percent of dealership employees say they're satisfied at work. That number collapses to 64% for anyone with one to three years on the job, exactly the stretch where a dealership can least afford to lose someone: after the training investment, before the loyalty sets in.
Benefits are the sharpest mover in this year's CDK study, 43% now call theirs inadequate, up from 32%, and 95% of employees considering leaving cite benefits as a factor.
Consider this today:
Open enrollment season is already on the calendar. This data landed at the right moment to act on it.
Gen Z is simultaneously the most likely to leave and the most likely to recommend the industry, that's not a contradiction, it's an opening.
The employees hardest to keep are the ones you've already spent the most training on. Worth a second look at year-two check-ins specifically.
🎙️ Listen to today's Automotive State of the Union episode for the complete discussion.
An Alabama Dealership Just Made Youth Sports Cost Less Than a Tank of Gas
Howard Bentley Buick-GMC dropped youth sports registration from up to $150 to a flat $25, funding the entire gap itself, no residency limits, ongoing beyond this season.
Sponsoring one team gets a logo on a jersey. Funding a whole league gets a dealership's name into kitchen table conversations across the whole city, every season.
Wholesale Depreciation Just Hit Its Steepest Weekly Drop Since December
Black Book
Car segment values fell 0.55% for the week ending August 29, per Black Book, more than double the seasonal average, while trucks and SUVs held a steady 0.58% decline.
Auction conversion stayed flat at 59%, suggesting buyers are still showing up, just pickier than usual about what they're willing to bid on.
🚘 Car Stuff
Ford is targeting 100,000 first-year sales for its $30,000 Fathom pickup, territory no EV outside Tesla has ever reached solo in the U.S. GM needed three brands combined to hit 170,000 last year.
Toyota may be leaving money on the table without dedicated accessory centers. Stellantis upfits 55% of its North American sales with an average of two-plus accessories each; Toyota's $3.6B Texas Tacoma plant is a natural spot to build the same playbook.
💰 Not Car Stuff
Nvidia is buying AI platform Hugging Face for $13 billion, one of the largest AI acquisitions of the year, as the chipmaker pushes deeper into software to go alongside its dominant position in AI hardware.
The LA Angels just sold for a record $4 billion, with Stan Kroenke agreeing to buy the team and its regional network, the richest deal in MLB history.
"Mayday" hits Apple TV this weekend, a new action-comedy joining a busy start to September's streaming and theatrical lineup, if you need something to unwind to after today's news cycle.
1882: Thomas Edison flipped the switch on the first commercial electrical power plant, lighting one square mile of lower Manhattan and kicking off the modern electrical age.
1888: George Eastman received a patent for his roll-film camera and registered the trademark Kodak, launching a company that would define photography for generations.
1998: Google was founded by Stanford graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin, though the company would later mark its official anniversary on September 27.
Thanks for reading, Friend!
